Scottish politicians among biggest targets for abuse on social media

Four Scots are among the top 10 Westminster politicians who faced the most hostility on Twitter, research has found.

Scotland’s only Labour MP in the last parliament, Ian Murray, came third while Scottish Secretary David Mundell was fifth.

The SNP’S Mhairi Black was sixth, followed by her party colleague Callum Mccaig at number eight.

Conservative Tim Loughton came top of the list for facing hostile Twitter messages. Labour’s Chi Onwurah was second.

Researchers at the Univer- 0 Ian Murray, Scotland’s only Labour MP in last parliament sity of Central Lancashire found the type of angry messages directed at Scottish MPS broadly focused on political issues rather than responding to a specific comment. Mr Murray and Mr Mundell were found to face recurring bouts of extreme hostility, peaking around the triggering of Article 50 in March.

The study found many hostile tweets aimed at Mr Mundell mentioned terms including Brexit, EU, independence,union,scotland, Scottish, unfair, democracy and referendum.

Those aimed at Mr Murray often referenced Scotland, Corbyn, Brexit, disaster, destroying and independence.

Researcher Amy Binns said: “The hostility aimed at the Scottish MPS is a more regular feature of their Twitter streams.”